How do you make curtain warmers?

[willbb123]

Normally I just have some fancy break up gobos, Like So

I decided to get a little more creative today. Ok... I had and idea and wanted to see how it would look. The show tonight was a Christmas jazz concert, and next week is the Nutcracker (I'm designing). I origionally wanted to put snow flake gobos in some floor mount source 4s in the pit and aim them up to the ceiling in the house. But then I realized that there is going to be a full orchestra for Nutcracker so I could not have lights down there. So I ended up focusing a light on our lowest box boom onto opposite sides of the ceiling and one from the balcony rail onto the curtain. So I basically had one curtain warmer and 2 ceiling warmers



Sorry for the low quality pics I only had my phone. It was best viewed from the orchestra level, but I decided to take pictures 2 min to second act opening and I was in the balcony.

Oh yea! There were a few people in the audience when I brought them up. There was a little girl and when she saw the lights she said "Wow! mommy take a picture of the snowflakes"

 

[Fibrostic]

Would anyone be able to post a picture of the "classic" Diamond pattern curtain warmer, I have a purple curtain, would i go with a deeper purple gel?

 

[MillburyAuditorium]

Didn't read earlier posts-

Hello,

If you meen, what do you do for something on the curtains in pre show and intermission,
We usually make a bubble kind of effect. Our center spot is a bit higher than the others, then we use the ones on either side that are closest, in projection wise, to the center one, which since they are a bit lower makes a bubble.

But we are hoping to get a custom gobo with the schools name or some other message which would replace this.

 

[NevilleLighting]

I use several different methods, depending on what I think is a nice look for the production at hand and what works in the venue.

For a "classic" look you may want to consider footlights if available. In the absence of footlight strips I often use a row of heavily frosted PAR-16's. THis gives me the added bonus of having a footlight wash for the show, if the show needs it.

Another approach is to accentuate the folds of the curtain with more of a side angle, usually from a box boom position. You can go for one of the concentrated versions explained in other posts or for a full coverage version. The concentrated version has the added bonus of possible functioning as a stage color wash if it's focussed carefully so it doesn't spill on too much ugly stuff. When possible I will combine the side angles that highlight the folds with a deeper color front angle to fill in the valleys.

As for color, I always use color but you have to play in the color range near your curtain color. You're not going to turn a red curtain blue. Usually a color slightly lighter than your curtain color works well. Too dark and it will probably disappear, washed out by houselight spill.

As for equipment type, I've seen all kinds work. I've seen very nice warmers done with PAR-64's and even Fresnels. I normally gravitate towards an ellipsoidal of some flavor, more control. What is most inportant is to get a very soft focus. Try a light frost such as R132 or R119 if necessary.
​

 

[philhaney]

How do you make curtain warmers?

The same way you make leg warmers. It just takes a LOT more fabric.

Or, get a two mile skein of yarn, a pair of number 14 knitting needles...



(I'm surprised no one has poosted this yet)

 

[MNicolai]

Re: Hey, I thought we could share pictures of our shows...

A recent curtain warmer we used:


Curtain Warmer by smoke-test, on Flickr

The client wanted to have a curtain warmer, but hated always seeing curtain warmers that were just gobos projected onto the center of the main drape. Took us about an hour to get the colors/angles just right, but the client was thrilled by it (and we surprised her by not turning these on for her to see until the house opened opening night).

This accidentally became our curtain warmer for the next three months of shows; I only recently struck it to return the lighting fixtures to our concert lighting plot.

 

[chausman]

A recent curtain warmer we used:


Curtain Warmer by smoke-test, on Flickr

The client wanted to have a curtain warmer, but hated always seeing curtain warmers that were just gobos projected onto the center of the main drape. Took us about an hour to get the colors/angles just right, but the client was thrilled by it (and we surprised her by not turning these on for her to see until the house opened opening night).

This accidentally became our curtain warmer for the next three months of shows; I only recently struck it to return the lighting fixtures to our concert lighting plot.

Wow, Cool... Would you like to share what colors those were?


---
- Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[MNicolai]

Re: Hey, I thought we could share pictures of our shows...

They were R77 (blue), R377 (indigo), L113 (magenta), and R389 (green) shot from Source Four PARnels onto our Royal Blue main drape.

Some time ago we struck our main border to a cart somewhere in the shop, and since then we've kept these eight PARnels on Line Set #1, downstage of the main.

Normally the fixtures are backlight for the apron, but for this particular show the director didn't want anyone dancing south of the plaster line, so we pointed the fixtures at angles as contour lighting across the drape.

What followed next was grabbing every color from the gel cabinet we thought may work well against Royal Blue, and after we tested them all at ground level, these are the four (out of probably a eighteen or so) that we settled on.

 

[Esoteric]

Re: Hey, I thought we could share pictures of our shows...

I assumed those were LEDs. We have done things like that with LEDs in the past. Interesting to know it was actual gel.

 

[n1ist]

Re: Hey, I thought we could share pictures of our shows...

I have used LED PAR38 fixtures on floor bases as curtain warmers for some dance recitals.
/mike

 

[EustaceM]

Re: Hey, I thought we could share pictures of our shows...

I have used LED PAR38 fixtures on floor bases as curtain warmers for some dance recitals.
/mike

I usually make mine within the style of the show only if there is extra. Recycling old and used always works fine. You wouldn't use bright colorful lights for a tragedy and vice-versa, you know.

 

[gafftapegreenia]

Re: Hey, I thought we could share pictures of our shows...

Whenever I see curtain warmers, they always tend to be the oldest radial fixtures the given place has. They always look so quaint hung next to dozens of Source 4's.

 

[Toffee]

Re: Hey, I thought we could share pictures of our shows...

For our curtain warmers we use sets of PARs with WIDE lamps in our large theatre, two sets of two hung at the far ends of our balcony rail, one red on each side and one blue on each side. It is the same effect I have seen at most theatres I have ever worked at out here.

 

[baotto]

For something a little more scalloped:

http://electrocellulose.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/dsc_0025.jpg

This was from a show I hung lights for (and acted in) a couple weeks ago. We just grabbed whatever spare lights we could find. I seem to remember there were a couple of S4 Jrs, Altman 6x12s, and fresnels. It looked a little asymmetrical, but it was really cool.

And, yes for any of you Madison area people that might be out there, it was "The Lamentable Tragedie of Scott Walker."

 

[chausman]

For something a little more scalloped:

This was from a show I hung lights for (and acted in) a couple weeks ago. We just grabbed whatever spare lights we could find. I seem to remember there were a couple of S4 Jrs, Altman 6x12s, and fresnels. It looked a little asymmetrical, but it was really cool.

And, yes for any of you Madison area people that might be out there, it was "The Lamentable Tragedie of Scott Walker."

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I actually kind of like that look. Sort of interesting. I can see it working really well for some shows, and not as much for others.